I'm a bit shocked. One may receive a PhD or even be one of the top researchers in Computational Creativity for models which are almost hand-driven and do "create" almost pre-written stories in such a small space of possibilities...

You may get a PhD in Computational Creativity by creating systems which lack learning and imagination... They just play with few parameters like "tension", "emotional links". Wow...

A story by MEXICA

(uppercase - original)

JAGUAR_KNIGHT WAS AN INHABITANT OF THE GREAT TENOCHTITLAN. PRINCESSWAS AN INHABITANT OF THE GREAT TENOCHTITLAN. TLALOC —THE GOD OF THERAIN— WAS ANGRY AND SENT A STORM. THE HEAVY RAIN DAMAGED THE OLDWOODEN BRIDGE. WHEN JAGUAR_KNIGHT TRIED TO CROSS THE RIVER THE BRIDGECOLLAPSED INJURING BADLY JAGUAR_KNIGHT'S HEAD. PRINCESS KNEW THATJAGUAR_KNIGHT COULD DIE AND THAT PRINCESS HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.PRINCESS HAD HEARD THAT THE TEPESCOHUITLE WAS AN EFFECTIVE CURATIVEPLANT. SO, PRINCESS PREPARED A PLASMA AND APPLIED IT TO JAGUAR_KNIGHT'SWOUNDS. IT WORKED AND JAGUAR_KNIGHT STARTED TO RECUPERATE!JAGUAR_KNIGHT REALISED THAT PRINCESS'S DETERMINATION HAD SAVEDJAGUAR_KNIGHT'S LIFE.

DURING THE LAST WAR PRINCESS'S FATHER HUMILIATED ENEMY'S FAMILY. NOW, ITWAS TIME OF REVENGE AND ENEMY KIDNAPPED PRINCESS. THEY WENT TO THEFOREST WHERE ENEMY TIED PRINCESS TO A HUGE ROCK. EXACTLY AT MIDNIGHTENEMY WOULD CUT PRINCESS UP. ALTHOUGH IT WAS VERY DANGEROUSJAGUAR_KNIGHT DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING IN ORDER TO LIBERATE PRINCESS. FORSOME MINUTES JAGUAR_KNIGHT PRAYED TO QUETZALCOATL —THE FEATHEREDSNAKE, THE GOD BETWEEN THE GODS— AND ASKED FOR WISDOM AND BRAVENESS.NOW JAGUAR_KNIGHT WAS READY TO FIND OUT ITS FATE.PRINCESS WAS REALLY ANGRY FOR WHAT HAD HAPPENED AND AFFRONTED ENEMY.ENEMY'S FRAME OF MIND WAS VERY VOLATILE AND WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT ITENEMY CHARGED AGAINST PRINCESS. MEANWHILE JAGUAR_KNIGHT DECIDED TOSTART A SEARCH FOR ENEMY. AFTER HARD WORK AND DIFFICULT MOMENTSJAGUAR_KNIGHT COULD FINALLY FIND ENEMY. JAGUAR_KNIGHT, FULL OF ANGER,TOOK A DAGGER AND ATTACKED ENEMY. JAGUAR_KNIGHT THREW SOME DUST INENEMY'S FACE. THEN, USING A DAGGER JAGUAR_KNIGHT PERFORATED ENEMY'Sഊ104CHEST. IMITATING THE SACRED CEREMONY OF THE SACRIFICE, JAGUAR_KNIGHTTOOK ENEMY'S HEART WITH ONE HAND AND RAISED IT TOWARDS THE SUN AS A SIGNOF RESPECT TO THE GODS.JAGUAR_KNIGHT WALKED TOWARDS PRINCESS. FULL OF ADMIRATION FOR ALL THEBRAVENESS THAT PRINCESS HAD SHOWN IN THOSE HARD MOMENTSJAGUAR_KNIGHT LIBERATED PRINCESS! ALTHOUGH AT THE BEGINNING PRINCESSDID NOT WANT TO ADMIT IT, PRINCESS FELL IN LOVE WITH JAGUAR_KNIGHT.PRINCESS WAS KISSING JAGUAR_KNIGHT WHEN SUDDENLY PRINCESS RECOGNISEDJAGUAR_KNIGHT'S TATTOO. IT WAS THE SAME AS THE ONE USED BY THEFRATERNITY WHICH HAD MURDERED PRINCESS'S FATHER SOME MONTHS AGO. ATONCE ALL THOSE TERRIBLE MEMORIES WERE PRESENT AGAIN. PRINCESS HADAMBIVALENT THOUGHTS TOWARDS JAGUAR_KNIGHT. ON THE ONE HAND PRINCESSHAD STRONG FEELINGS FOR JAGUAR_KNIGHT BUT ON THE OTHER HAND PRINCESSABOMINATED WHAT JAGUAR_KNIGHT DID. PRINCESS FELT A DEEPLY ODIUM FORJAGUAR_KNIGHT. INVOKING HUITZILOPOCHTLI, GOD OF THE DEAD, PRINCESS CUTJAGUAR_KNIGHT'S JUGULAR. THE BLOOD COVERED THE FLOOR. PRINCESS TOOK ADAGGER AND CUT PRINCESS’S THROAT. PRINCESS BLED TO DEATH WHILE TONATIU(THE GOD REPRESENTING THE SUN) DISAPPEARED IN THE HORIZON.

It would be nice, if the text wasn't generated by simple patterns - the system has no idea what is "the god representing the sun", or what means to display a sign to god or so. It can't generate alternative wording, e.g. Text comes from simple text patterns, which are pasted.

...MEXICA ER2 story together with the human story got the highest score. These results suggest that the process followed by MEXICA to create suspense and interesting stories work adequately....

Sure...

...MEXICA is a good example of how a computer model forces the modeller to think about all the details of a theory. Sharples’ (1996) account of the writing process is very general, i.e. it does not include details about the cognitive processes performed during writing....

Yep... But imagination of a writer is extremely richer and flexible than such basic models...And more complex realistic simulations are needed - those boring predefined text-patterns are not enough.

Monday, July 7, 2008

I defended my MS thesis on 4-th of July, and now there is a little break after a hard-working period... :)

Thesis: Glas 2 - Bulgarian Text To Speech Synthesizer

"Glas" is a hybrid microphoneme synthesizer which manipulates microphones (very short records of formant frequencies, < 0.01 s). The most significant novelties in Glas 2 are:

stresseses recognition

intonation contours

tembre alteration, special effects and tembre/voice contours

singing experiments

emoticon sounds :))

Coding of part of these is still in progress, though. :)

The end of my thesis were directions and ideas for further researches. Maybe the coolest one is:

Adaptive Quasi-articulation synthesizer and analyzer, with feedback

My latest invention in the field of TTS. It will be a lot of work until it begins to speak, though... :))

While writing my idea, I found that there is a related PhD proposal in Edinburgh. Well, it's not the same, but it shares ideas in the use of articulation information. My system would use its own articulation information, from its own articulation system (not a copy of human). I think Edinburgh proposals are supposed to exploit advanced sensors, put on human speakers. Check this out: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/edsst/research.html

Not that I'm going to apply immediately there... I'd like to spend some time with another love, too - Computational Creativity.

About me

Author of the world's first interdisciplinary university course in AGI, presented in 2010 and 2011. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) researcher & developer; contributor to the CogAlg project. A renaissance person with diverse fields of interests and activities. Filmmaker (...)
Looking for R&D and creative partners and opportunities! Contact me on twenkid at google com